Emily's Story; Painting a Life of Healing

The canvas of life is rich with the hues of hardship and the vibrant colors of healing; no one knows this better than our guest, Emily Shea, whose brushstrokes tell a story of personal revival through art. As we navigate the chapters of our latest episode, we meet an artist who has turned moments of upheaval—like motherhood and a heart-wrenching divorce—into masterpieces that support her family and resonate deeply with others. Emily's tale, punctuated by the influential legacy of her father, illustrates how art can be a bridge to healing, a way to process emotions, and effortlessly become a universal language that connects us all.

Imagine a world where our creativity is not just a gift, but a divine invitation to co-create with God. This episode is a testimony to that sacred partnership, where we discuss the boundless capacity of art to facilitate personal and collective growth. Our conversation meanders through the therapeutic process of creation, the intimate dance with the divine, and the idea that every brush stroke, note, or word can be an act of worship. In embracing our inherent creativity, we uncover how Emily, through her devotion to her craft, unveils a deeper connection to spirituality and the profound impact this has on her and those touched by her work.

Art, they say, is not just seen but felt. In the final act of our heartrending journey, we examine the power of symbology. It's a reminder that the essence of art extends far beyond the canvas, finding its way into the everyday—the passion with which we tackle life's adversities, the emotion poured into every endeavor. From the football field's life lessons to the art of resilience post-divorce, our episode is a mosaic of inspiration, challenging listeners to find the artist within and to paint their own lives with boldness and heart.

Follow Emily's art on Instagram and on her website;
@emilyshayfineart
emilyshayfineart.com

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@remember.podcast




The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:23

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Remember Podcast. We're happy to be here. I'm your host, Dalyan, and I am joined by both of my amazing co-hosts, so happy to have them on here. We've got Mikaela and Tresden and we have an amazing guest with us today. I don't know a whole lot about her, so I'm going to turn the time over to Mikaela to introduce.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Hey, so we have Emily Shea here today. She is an artist and her work is beautiful. I came across her page on Instagram and I figured you know what. We haven't had someone share their artwork here and I am a huge lover for art and she has some pictures of Jesus, also beautiful pieces of individuals, and the messages she shares about these art pieces are just beautiful and I figured you know what. Why don't we have her come on and share her story and share, maybe, how she got to this point and how art has helped bring Christ into her life? So, emily, if you want to go ahead and share your story, Hi, thanks, first of all, for having me here.

Speaker 3: 1:41

I used to be really scared to share my story. It felt very raw and vulnerable and I'm really grateful honestly largely due to my artwork, that I've come to a beautiful healing space that I hand share and talk about it and hopefully resonate with other people. And one of the reasons why art is so incredibly powerful is that it is a bridge and we can come from completely different walks of life, different experiences, and yet artwork acts as a bridge because we can connect to the same emotion even though we're coming from different lives, experiences etc. So I think we're going to all be really close by the end of this, because the more we can connect to a shared feeling, the closer you can be. So I love sharing my story now because I'm able to connect with so many incredible, beautiful, beautiful humans because of this emotion that I am putting into my artwork.

Speaker 3: 3:09

I've always been an artist, I've always been in that realm, but it wasn't until I kind of lost myself in being a mom. We're just giving so much to all the people around you that you kind of forget to be in your own skin and cultivate who you are, and so I realized I was losing myself after I had my second child and realized I needed to do something for myself, and so I'd always been an artist, but I had stopped doing it since being a mom, and so I started doing some illustration and things just for my kids and showed it to family, family showed it to friends, and it just kind of built off of that and so people would ask me to paint things and so it was just this little side thing for a few years and I just absolutely loved it because I just felt like myself whenever I did it. And it's so funny you think it's so easy to do the things that you're passionate about because they light you up and you're just so excited about it. But it's hard, it's really hard to make time for the things that you love, and so I'm grateful. I'm so grateful that it has become this job and not only like. It's not just a job right, it's my passion project and I get to provide for my family, which I'm just thrilled about and feel so grateful and so lucky.

Speaker 3: 4:52

But it wasn't until my marriage started failing that I really, really leaned into my artwork and figured, you know, like if it saved me before let's put it to the test. What can it do for me now? Because I was really struggling, I was broken. I just felt like a crumpled mess on the floor. You know, doing a dish, just my knees would just buckle because I didn't know.

Speaker 3: 5:25

I didn't know where this path was taking me and everything was just turned upside down. You know, you have these expectations of how life should go and I was not going in that way. So I ended up getting a divorce and it was about the same time that I teamed up with Deseret Book and did some projects with them and it was just enough traction that I had the courage, honestly, to keep going. I was definitely considering getting just a regular daytime job, but by many angels and many tender mercies, I have been able to stay on this path and continue to provide for my family and, you know, take care of my kids and be at home with them while painting and living my dream. So that's kind of the backstory. So ultimately, my story is a story of healing and the power of artwork.

Speaker 4: 6:42

I've got a question for you, Emily. With artwork and everything you'd mentioned, you were always an artist. So at what point in your life did that kind of like take off and then, before you know, like obviously getting married and having kids and a lot of stuff like take so much time out of your day Like I can only imagine, because like I feel like I'm busy all the time and I'm just like seeing what we're doing literally whatever I want, so it's like I couldn't even imagine what that timeframe was like. But before all that, what was the role that artwork played in your life before this experience that you've had?

Speaker 3: 7:19

So I want to make sure I'm getting a question right. So before my art took off, like, what was its role then? Is that correct?

Speaker 4: 7:26

When you were growing up, like when you know, art became present in your life, up until you know, it came back after your second child, Like what was the role that it played in your life.

Speaker 3: 7:36

Okay, yeah, so my dad was an artist. He, I mean, he still has it in him but he doesn't really practice it very much now. But when he was on his mission he had some pretty powerful stories of conversion through his artwork and so he would share these stories growing up and it was incredibly motivating. And I had this dream as a child of just painting, like I mean, it's kind of silly, but I had this dream of painting with like angels during the second coming, and just being this like glorified being, you know, just like light shooting out my head as I'm painting. And because of just these stories my dad had told of just like this delight that this artwork had brought into people's lives and how, ultimately, you know, led them to Christ. So that was my like childhood. You know what, if, what, if. But I just stayed with artwork, you know, all throughout school. In high school I won a few, you know, different art shows. My high school actually bought a piece that is still there, like in the auditorium, which is kind of fun it's a horse, it's really random, but it's unclaimed to fame and then, you know, stayed with it throughout college.

Speaker 3: 9:03

And so I've explored so many different assets. And it's interesting because I was trained in fine art, but because and it reminds me of a quote by Picasso where he says you know, by a young teenager I could paint like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn how to paint like a child and I feel like I understood fine art just because that's how I was trained. You know for years that it almost seemed boring to me, so for a long time I just experimented and tried. You know all different types, a lot of like digital art, illustration, and it's only been the past probably three years that I've really come back to my roots and settled into my fine art training.

Speaker 3: 9:59

But what's so fun is that I've taken a lot of different like skill sets, that I've learned from all these different you know avenues and turned it into a style that's very unique to me. And that's actually a really hard thing as an artist is finding your style. It's your voice, you know, and a writer like they have a very distinct voice, and being able to figure out that voice and then stay with it like it feels like home, that it's not going to be changing anytime soon Doesn't seem like it would be hard to find, but it really does take a lot, a lot of work. So I'm really, I'm really grateful and absolutely ecstatic that I have arrived and I know that I will be here forever.

Speaker 2: 10:52

So art I'm like the same way, Like I grew up, my mom is a wonderful artist, Like she's, just I'm amazed by her talents and she's and she's probably gonna listen to this and be like man I'm not, but she is and I and she's trying to pursue this art, that her talents with art and so, and I grew up doing art and my whole family's artistic and stuff, and so art is just has a special place in my heart. And even right now I'm taking in class I'm still in college, but I'm taking a class about art and all the different styles and stuff, right, and I came to notice, you know that art, there's so many different ways to express art and creativity, not just through drawing, but through theater, drama, music, right, but there's something about that or about putting it on paper and expressing your mind through your drawings, through the shades, the colors, the movements that you wanna portray on a piece of artwork, right, and I've just never really looked at art and, like, really took it in, right, but I've been on the side where I've drawn art and drawn like there's been moments where I've drawn like what I was feeling, or drawing I don't know like, or just the amount of times that I even had like drawing just to escape, or even music on my end, like playing music and playing piano as a way for me to escape from the world and express my feelings through those through, like music or through art and portraying my emotions through that. And you can see, as you observe art like what the artist is trying to express, either through their emotions or through something they're trying to tell people and the details that are put into art pieces, like just observing it and be like man. What do they mean by this detail? Like you can take it in so many different ways and I feel like that's what observers can connect with is through the artists and through their own interpretation of what I mean. And there's so many people that I've like come across on Instagram or like posting their art pieces and how it's so different. But you can connect with the feelings that they're trying to express and how they've, and even through works of Christ and the way they portray Christ in their eyes and how they interpret gospel doctrine and how they draw it out. It's just so beautiful and even through struggles, like I know you also paint and draw, like I've gone through and see what you do and you portray like woman and the gospel, and even in their own struggles.

Speaker 2: 13:50

And you've mentioned that you've gone through a lot of hardship lately and how that has been a source of healing, and I think it's beautiful that you've been able to find that through your artwork and expressing. You know, maybe sometimes it's hard to vocalize our feelings or what we've gone through, but that's why Christ has given us certain talents, certain personalities, certain characteristics that allow us to express and share our testimonies with others, or share and spread awareness about something and even share his light, because he is the creative. God is the creator of all things. Look at the like around us. The world is so beautiful and he has.

Speaker 2: 14:35

He is the ultimate artist, right, and to be able to share those talents and the things that he's given you, it just makes you appreciate what surrounds you more and the emotions that can tie into it and the beauty and even finding your own identity within it. All can just be so. It's just so fulfilling. And I just wanna ask you, like you mentioned that, how it's healed you, what's like, how have you allowed this to heal you, what have you done with your art to allow you to heal yourself, and even what motivated you to portray certain emotions and things to allow other people to see, and especially see Christ.

Speaker 3: 15:19

Yeah, that's a great question. So it's interesting artwork speaks to the heart, right? That's we feel, and oftentimes we in just this modern world, we get stuck in our heads and we tend to just take in so much information that we don't take time to pause and reflect and truly like tap into our emotions. And it's interesting emotions. The way our subconscious mind works is if we are willing to become and practice like, become aware and practice awareness and tap into what we actually are feeling, because oftentimes we have our primary emotion which we don't always recognize, and so it might come out in another way, like we might be really angry but ultimately we're actually really afraid, and so the more we're able to label our emotions and say you know what we're feeling, there's this click that happens in our subconscious mind that we feel validated and we're taking something from, like, the ethos just in our brain that's swirling around and verbalizing it and saying it, and when we say it and when we speak it or when we put it just in any way into the physical realm, it's incredibly validating for our subconscious mind and that is the biggest and most important step to healing. So with my artwork I mentioned before, it's very raw and vulnerable and, honestly, it doesn't get easier. I mean, I'm sure if I created another type of artwork, but the type of paintings that I do are very raw from the heart.

Speaker 3: 17:38

And another interesting thing about the subconscious mind is that it doesn't work with words. And I mean, how big is our subconscious mind? It's like 80% of our brain, right, like it's kind of a big one. It's like the iceberg underneath the water. And what's interesting about it is that it doesn't use words to communicate. It uses colors, shapes and symbols. So I mean, that's essentially artwork, right, and the more that I have been willing to face myself and get curious about what I am experiencing, I am able to. I use that as my momentum to channel that into my artwork. But often times, the more I'm sitting on it and I get curious about where I'm at and I don't know if this works for everyone when they're practicing awareness, but I often have these color shapes and symbols coming to my mind.

Speaker 3: 18:54

One of my pieces that I created about Heavenly Mother I just had this hazy image of frost ice when it gets frosted on your windshield or something. How it's just hazy and I just felt like she was right there. She was so close but it was just this like frosted glass of a veil and the more I like thought about it and cultivated that like emotion of just like reaching for her but she's just like she's so close but still feel so far. That was the beginning of like a whole series of what I created. So it's just interesting.

Speaker 3: 19:36

I think that's the biggest thing, is like the more curious and willing I am to face myself. That's kind of like what, elis, is this avenue of my artwork. But, like you were saying before, we are all children of the ultimate artist, the biggest, best divine creator. We are children and that means that it is within us and we are all creators. And if it's not painting, like, maybe we're not all painters, but we all have this creativity within us and we are co-creators with God and we have to cultivate that. We have to practice creativity in whatever form that is, and I truly believe the biggest step towards cultivating that divine creativity is tapping into our emotions and opening up the door to our subconscious mind, and that is truly a portal towards heaven, to the divine. I'm not sure if I answered your question, I just kind of went off. But there's more of that came from.

Speaker 2: 20:52

Yeah, I love how you said that we're co-creators with God. Right, we all have our, and that's why I find talent so beautiful is that we all have our strengths and the talents that God has blessed us with, and he has given us agency and given us these things to choose whether or not we want to share that with the world and sharing his light and create something beautiful out of what we've been blessed with. And even like I don't know, and just becoming who we were meant to be has so much power in that too, and there's a reason why we have the things that we've been blessed with. There's a reason why we have strengths and even weaknesses, too, to allow others to use their creativity, to use their strengths to help us grow and become who God wants us to be. We all are supposed to help each other. We're all like within each other's fingertips. We all are intertwined underneath God, the greatest creator, and we can bring each other to his light through the things that we can bring in offer to the world, and I even believe that we also used that. We were also played a part in creating the earth.

Speaker 2: 22:09

My mom always said maybe I was the one that helped create the flowers and the beautiful skies. She loves clouds and she always draws clouds. Maybe she helped that, and maybe some people helped with the animals, and I don't know the songs and we all have a beautiful part on this earth and with each other and under God that we can bring. Such a God has an ultimate plan for us all and under him, and if we connect with each other, we can bring out the most beautiful. I don't know purpose within us all. I don't know what I'm trying to get with it, but I just love that.

Speaker 2: 22:49

I love that we all are creators and co-creators and we can help each other find their strengths too. If we ask him, he will give us the strengths and he will make our weaknesses strong, and maybe that's through other people, maybe that's through being exposed to something that we may not have experienced and realizing. Maybe the weaknesses that we feel we have are actually strengths to us. It's just a different perspective or a different. Maybe we need to become aware of the different side of it and how God sees it and the reason why he gave it to us. So I don't know. Creativity and the power of creation is just so awesome, and I feel like that is one way we can find our identity too, and find who we were meant to be and what the whole purpose of being here is for, and even having like finding healing and love and seeing how God sees us through our talents and through our strengths. That is also so beautiful, and I just love everything you've said, so thank you.

Speaker 3: 23:57

Well, I'm so glad and just to kind of go off of what you were saying, you know like and I think I may be paraphrasing because I'm like adding in what I was thinking but how we're, all you know, not just creators and co-creators but, like you said, like your mom, you know like maybe I helped create the clouds. I feel that same connection towards water and like the ocean, so fun to think about and such a beautiful concept and, like you said, like having how your mom has that connection to clouds and helps her notice them more than she wants to draw them. And the more we can practice that, like observing and taking the beauty around us. Because if we can't appreciate, like the ultimate artwork that God created, we can't have artwork, you can't have artwork. I mean, can you? Can you have artwork without the appreciator? You have to have an appreciator to have the artist and like what a beautiful connection we have to God in that way, you have to have the appreciator with the artist, right? So the more that we can observe the art around us and you know whether it be, you know, like paintings, like me, other artists, but very specifically like nature and what God has created for us, I truly believe that nature and the artwork that God has created for us is a blueprint and a path back to ourselves and back to the divine.

Speaker 3: 25:52

And it's interesting because I was always really scared to paint Jesus. I avoided it for a very long time until the ultimate breakdown of the soul going through not I mean it was before the divorce, but just like we split up a few times and I had to, I had to connect to Jesus in that way, and so I finally dared to to, you know, draw and paint Jesus. And it was a beautiful, sweet connection. And once I finally felt like I got the rhythm of that, I'm like, ok, this is where I want to be forever. You know, I get to paint Jesus. Like what's better than that? And it's interesting.

Speaker 3: 26:37

So how long ago, about two months ago, the church commissioned me to do a piece that they asked me specifically not to paint Jesus, which just felt so countering, it felt so counterintuitive, right, and so they were wanting they're wanting a symbol again, symbology, the language of symbology and the subconscious mind. They're wanting a symbol that represented a value taught by Jesus and represented by Jesus. They wanted the viewer to have a very personal, personal, personal. What am I trying to say? Personal, there we go. Personal connection that was unique and different enough that they would feel it maybe a little bit deeper than having an image. That was a little bit more spelled out, if that makes sense. So I had to dig really deep because they're actually wanting me to convey forgiveness and that was really hard. That was a tough one, especially not being able to paint Jesus in the picture, because we have there's plenty of stories right in the Bible. But it was a huge marker for me because I had spent so long avoiding painting Jesus and then having painted him and now coming to a place of being asked to convey everything about Jesus and what he represents in his teaching without painting him, and so I don't know why it was. Just this experience had me delve so much deeper into this like language of symbology, and it made me reflect back to about two years ago.

Speaker 3: 28:32

I went to Europe and studied there and it was interesting. I was in a cathedral and this man who's giving us this tour we're looking at the stained glass windows and he points he's like does anyone know how to read a stained glass window? And someone's like don't you read it? Like top to bottom or something, and that's that was the extent of our whole group. That's all we knew. He's like okay, yes, that is correct. Like what else? What does this color mean? You know what? About? Like this section over here? What does this tree represent? And we had no idea. And he says it's interesting.

Speaker 3: 29:05

People back then did not know how to read. They're completely illiterate, and yet they're. They were literate in this language of symbology, which is so vast and makes us feel so much deeper. And it's interesting because you think about how Jesus teaches with parables, stories I actually looked up recently. Like what exactly? Like how do you describe a parable? And, broken down, it's basically an illustrated story, a story that helps you formulate.

Speaker 3: 29:51

You know this picture in your mind and when, when we teach in stories and Jesus knows this that's what lasts, that's what pierces us so deeply that we don't forget it.

Speaker 3: 30:02

We don't forget how we feel right, and that that is the language of symbology, it's these images that stick with us and are so personal, because we feel them so deeply and we don't forget it. And so I'm saying all of this to essentially come down to this idea of symbology and teaching through emotions, through feeling, in a way that we do not forget. It's so much more impactful than words, and I, my goal, my goal here is to teach and and share the things that are worth remembering in a way that we don't forget. And that's where, you know, this power of artwork comes from, and the more we can appreciate, the more that we can open up our hearts and be willing to feel deeply and get curious about what that means to us, the more we will not forget these things that are so important, and I don't know if it's in the Bible and Book of Mormon or if it's just in the Book of Mormon, but the most common word through all of it is the word remember.

Speaker 3: 31:28

Sorry, I just had a call come in. Hopefully you can. I don't know if that cut out, but, um, yeah, the most common word is remember, because we are human and we forget. We forget so much, and so how do we make sense of things that are worth remembering? It's by feeling, it's by tapping into the heart, and that is the power of artwork and my forever goal that has all been so amazing.

Speaker 1: 31:59

I had to take notes on a, an envelope. This is an, important isn't? No, okay, we're good. Um, that is all such amazing, amazing stuff that you and Michaela both shared um thus far, and I want to add to it. And then I want to I kind of want to go a little bit of a different direction, but there's a couple of things that I wanted to say. Um, one thing I wanted to connect you a little bit. I think I'm something of a, an artist myself. I can draw some pretty, uh, pretty sweet trees. I think kind of a little cartoony, but um, that's about the extent of my skills but hey, trees are important, we need more trees.

Speaker 1: 32:47

I love. I love the direction that this episode has gone about focusing on emotion and like, really, art. I think a very good loose definition, um, very liberal definition, of art would be the communicating of emotion in something that you care about. And so if something someone was to work really hard on a ranch and they put all their emotion, all their effort into it, that becomes their form of art, like art is. It's a very liberal, um thing. It reaches into any and every aspect of our lives, as long as we're devoting our emotions and our, um, you know, every fiber of our being into it. And I think, because art is the language of emotion, I think, I think, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 33:48

This is a thought that popped into my head as you, uh, as you guys, were talking. I love to think deeply about things, I love to ask questions and I love, uh, well, as we're talking about art, we're talking about curiosity. It is so important to question everything, not question your faith. Well, I guess you can question your faith and really get into the root of why you believe, but don't um you know the phrase doubt your doubts, not your faith. But questions are an excellent opportunity to stretch and to grow um in any in any way or shape or form, and one of the questions that I was thinking about was is is our emotions part of the language of God? Is that our way of tapping into the way he communicates? Because how do we feel the Holy Ghost if we feel in our souls, we feel it so deeply, so emotionally? I think that's that's something that's the reason why we sing hymns in in sacrament meaning. It's the reason why, when we feel the spirit, we start to tear up. We're tapping into the language of God, and I think that's why art is such an important?

Speaker 1: 35:04

Um aspect of our lives. And if, when you know when I was growing up, or you know in my early I say that I'm 23 but my early adulthood, I'm still in my early adulthood but, um, I used to think art was a waste of time, but as I'm growing and maturing, I'm realizing how important it really is, because it connects us to our Heavenly Father, it connects us to the things that bring us emotion and it brings us life. That is like, what is the reason to live if you're not finding so much joy and so much emotion within it? Um, I did want. I've got a couple more things that I wanted to talk about, but before I get into those, um yeah, yeah, can I just add to that because, uh, that is so beautiful.

Speaker 3: 35:57

I love how you said that because it makes me, it makes me think of the scripture. And he and he wept. And going to that story where Lazarus, you know, had had had passed away, and he and Christ comes and Mary and Martha just go to him like if you had been here, if you had only been here, you know he would have lived and and they're just they're, they're crying, they're just overtaken with emotion and, you know, knowing the story, we're like, hey, you know, if it had been me, it's like, oh my gosh, well, I'm here now, don't even worry, like you don't have to cry, watch what's about to happen. And yet Christ sat with them and he just what, he just sat there and he felt with them and, you know, I'm just like. I'm just like. I'm just like I'm. I feel like Brene Brown is kind of a viral gal now.

Speaker 3: 36:56

Most people are aware of her teachings, but she's all about the power of vulnerability. She talks a lot about empathy. I want to connect her with Terrell and Fiona Gibbons. They're members of the church and they wrote this book called the God who Weeps. The whole premise of this book is talking about the power of a God that is vulnerable, and that is God's power. You think about a baby that's vulnerable. It's like, okay, you think that's so weak. But when we tap into our emotions and we choose to be vulnerable and naked and unashamed before God, we're raw in just showing like this is where I'm at, this is how I feel, this is who I am. There's so much power in that this vulnerability and the willingness to show up is actually God's power and that is what gives us this connection to God.

Speaker 3: 38:02

It's interesting to note the more we practice this vulnerability, the more we're able to actually tap into this higher skillset, this divine skillset of empathy, and that is the God who Weeps. He sat there and he empathized of anything he could have done, anything. He sat with them and just empathized. You think about the atonement. All empathy is essentially tapping into what this other person is feeling and saying and conveying like hey, I get it, I've been there. I haven't experienced exactly what you've experienced, but I know that feeling.

Speaker 3: 38:43

And bringing it back to this artwork, it's like this bridge of like, hey, I know this feeling, I can connect to you, but that's what the atonement is. God is the ultimate empathizer. I get it, I've been there, he has experienced it all, and so I feel like art is just this little segue, this tool that we can use to practice our empathy and to be like the God who Weeps and to connect to this emotion, that it can be this bridge and this skillset. So I just had to do that added plug. I think it's just so powerful that the more we are able to tap into this language of the gods, like you said, this language of emotion, this power of vulnerability, the power of empathy through artwork, I mean it's awesome, it's incredible.

Speaker 1: 39:41

Yeah, thank you for adding to that. That's this. I love this podcast because we talk about things that I would have never thought about before in any way, shape or form and just bring so much opportunity for us to grow and grow together. I love it so much. I want to shift gears a little bit and I want to ask you about something that I saw on your page in the five minutes before recording this episode that I got to look at it. I saw you have a lot of things about the buffalo and the cow and it's a.

Speaker 1: 40:22

We've talked about that analogy, that story, on this page before, but I'll just give a brief introduction to it the story of the buffalo and the cow. So when a storm comes, buffalo run through the storm, they charge into it and it makes the storm a lot less scary because it's shorter and they get through it much quicker than the cow would. And what the cow does when a storm approaches is they run away and things might seem great at the start, but then the storm will eventually overtake them and then they keep running with the storm and so they're in the storm much longer than needs be, whereas the buffalo ran through it and was on the other side very quickly and very effectively, and there's so much that we can go into that story. But I wanted to ask you what brought or what does that story mean to you, how? Because it seems like it's had a pretty large impact in your page and, I'm assuming, in your life. So go ahead, yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:40

So I think, just looking back on my life and my story, there's been plenty of seasons of survival and seasons of thriving, but these last few years have been more in the realm of surviving, and it's not a bad thing.

Speaker 3: 42:04

Honestly, I think it's actually one of the most beautiful times of our lives. Sometimes, when we are too weak, too broken to come to God, that's when we can be this lost sheep. We're lost on our path and he comes to find us. He will not leave us forsaken. He will come and he will find us. And what's more beautiful than being found by your shepherd and being carried home? And I have felt like that sheep a lot, a lot, a lot. And so there's beauty in that survival. But it's interesting because I've talked to a few different therapists and just where I'm at in my story. I'm coming up on my third year of being divorced and I don't know why. I don't know why the number three is like the magic number, but supposedly a lot of these therapists say that it's at about the three year mark, when you're just like your nervous system has had the time to heal and come to a good place. And yeah, and it's interesting because I have felt that I've definitely felt that. So, coming into this new year, I just felt this like extra fire of just like, okay, I don't feel like I'm in that survival mode anymore and I want to hit the ground running, like there's so much possibility here, but or more like instead of butt, and I cherish this time of survival. I look back and that's when I felt closest to God, that's when he's been carrying me, and so I don't want to lose that. And so it's choosing, instead of kind of being forced just through life circumstances, it's choosing the heart and choosing this storm, going into the difficulties of life and ideally kind of getting ahead of it. And we're willing to choose it like. I think it's just that we're that much more able to get through the storm even faster. And sure you know we're not always going to be unscathed. It's still going to be painful, still might be cold, we might get drenched, but we're just that much more capable. And so I think it's just the most beautiful concept to and two different regards and we, when the storm has just found us, if we're still willing to face it sometimes we don't have the strength to charge the storm, but if we are willing to lean into it and go into the storm, we come out stronger. That's I feel like where I have been is I haven't necessarily been choosing the storm and charging into it, but now that I do feel so much more settled and stronger, I don't want to lose what comes from facing that storm, let alone charging the storm.

Speaker 3: 45:47

And so it makes me actually think of just this whole concept of like cold plunging doesn't seem like that's just like such a fat is. Maybe it's not a fat, but it's just. Everyone seems to be doing it and if you don't post about it, it's not real right. But I have gotten into a little bit more. My brother is just so good at it he's, he got the whole tub. You know that you can put inside your house. Very inspiring. But it's that same concept. You're choosing the cold, right, you're not just being stuck out in it. It's like, okay, I'm going to get into this freaking cold icy tub because I know that if I do it I'm going to get stronger. And so when you choose ahead of time and are willing to, I think you're that much more of a vessel for God to work through you and and trustworthy that God knows that he can rely on you that, because you're willing to choose that. So that's my goal, first and foremost facing a storm. On top of that, being able and having the capacity to charge into it.

Speaker 1: 47:13

I love that. I want to give trust and an opportunity to talk, but I just want to add one thing to that. There's a. There's a quote. I don't remember who it's by or where it's from or anything like that. I watched a lot of motivational Instagram reels and saw it on one of those, I'm sure. But it's life is hard. Getting up early and working out is hard, but so is living a life of laziness. Choose your heart, like you're going to have if you live your life in a lazy way you're not working out, you're not doing things. You're going to regret it later in life when your health is declining. That's going to be hard. Choose your heart. You can face the storm and get it done and over with. That's hard. Or you can run with the storm and that's going to be hard. Choose your heart, and I love that and I love everything that you said. And, treznan, if you got something.

Speaker 4: 48:17

I do, so my original thought kind of takes a back minute. But there's actually something that I recalled in the subject of that and you really do have to choose your heart, because if you're going forward in life, you're treading your own path, like it's your own life. Nobody else has been there before. So you are making that, you're traveling through these mountains, you're the one moving those mountains, going through them, going around them. Whatever it is, there's always not a lot you have to choose. And that reminded me. I seen you're a high school.

Speaker 4: 48:46

I might have like a really awesome coaching staff for football. They all did a lot to focus on the fact that a lot of what we were doing there come down to the character and the people that we became. It's about the things surrounding the game so much more than the game itself, and it was really evident by the fact that they kept trying to play football Like it was played 80 years ago and it wasn't working. But we still kept losing and they still kept trying to do that. They were choosing the wrong card on that one right. But one of the things that coach Topham told us was the mark of true character comes when you're down, not when you're up, and I think that's something that just speaks to a lot of different things, because I've gotten to a point in my life where I've been I'm very slow to, I guess, react, like I'm very quick to be slow if that makes sense, like something happens, then I'm like, okay, if I react right now, I don't know if I'm in the right headspace, and so I've gotten to a point where I'm very good at just stepping back, letting things happen and that's just choosing my words and my reactions very, very carefully.

Speaker 4: 49:59

I'm not an artist. I can't draw anything. I used to do these little stick figure football people back in the day. I can do woodworking and stuff like that relatively well. You know that's an art, in my opinion. I play music, but I'm kind of not good at it. But I am really good with words. I kind of do poetry and stuff like that for myself and it gives myself a lot of opportunities to express. And the reason that these things need to be expressed, the reason that I like doing it so much, is because it gives a literal voice to the things that I'm feeling and as I look at that, it's all things that, yeah, while it's coming from me and my experiences.

Speaker 4: 50:40

There's things that people can relate with as people go and they look at art. If they hear music, if they read poetry, they read a book, whatever it is that they're watching, whatever form of art it is they consume and they resonate with. There's always a huge reason that people connect with these things, that it goes back to the old adage that art imitates life and we were given the gift of life from God, our heavenly Father. We were given that gift from Him to experience these things, and we were also given the opportunity to have human emotions, to have the trials, the struggles, the storms that we can run through, the storms that we can avoid, just to get caught up in again. We were given the opportunity to have those experiences in such a beautifully unique way, while being subject to the beautiful disaster that is the human condition. And so when you look at art and when you look at the way that you resonate with those feelings, everything that imitates life, that beautiful canvas that the greatest artist in the universe, our creator, our designer, created. It brings everything full circle, and I think a lot of people overlook the importance of taking that canvas in their own lives and making things even better and, even more importantly, taking the things from other sources that can build a new canvas.

Speaker 4: 52:18

There's a. At the time of recording it's Valentine's Day, and so there's a little love song that has a great chorus, but I don't necessarily resonate with it because of the whole love aspect, because I haven't been married to a wife for years like Cody Johnson, but he has a song in the chorus. The song's called the Painter and it says I don't remember life before she came into the picture, brought the beauty I was missing with her. Show me colors I've never seen. She took chances with every wall I built. She saw canvas. I think God every day for how he made her.

Speaker 4: 52:53

My life was black and white, but she's the painter, and when I first heard that song I was in a very spiritual place. He's got a couple of other spiritual songs and I was listening to those on the way to her from church, I believe, and that song just came on spot if I playing, and so I was already in spiritual place and so I didn't necessarily take it as I've got this beautiful love of my life on my arm. That's making my life better. But one thing that I do have with me every single day is Jesus Christ. I have the Atonement, I have God and I have the walls that I build up. I have a lot of beauty that I need to bring back into my life because I've become very cynical or I'm so focused on what it means to be a man.

Speaker 4: 53:34

But, just like he says in that song, with every wall I build, christ is a canvas. Any part of my life that is black and white. He is able to paint and he's able to turn those little things into personal artwork for me, things that it's like a spiritual artwork that resonates because that imitates life, that imitates the condition that we are in here as mortal beings to get to where we can live with God again. And so I'm very, very thankful for your story, emily, and your vulnerability, not just with us here, but especially through your paintings, because, like, oh my goodness, we'll give you time to plug your Instagram and everything like that. It'll all be linked for me. Post this. But it is amazing, it's beautiful stuff and it's very. Like I said, I can be very cynical, so it's hard for me to resonate with things, but when I see something that imitates life, it's so much more beautiful because I can see the beauty that God has, but not only into the world, but then to the people around us.

Speaker 3: 54:39

Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 54:44

So we're getting to be about an hour, so we'd probably better close out and let you go get back to your kids. We know they're wanting their mom. But I have one final thought before we close out, and I love the whole topic of discussion that we've had. We bounced around a little bit but and it has been so amazing there's so many things that I think about differently now after this episode, and I wanted to end with talking about faith a little bit, because you have shown so much faith in your trials. Like I can see it I'm sure Mikaela and Tristan they can see it you look like the embodiment of faith right now. You're just kind of shining with it and it's powerful to see that. Our listeners can't see that because they're only gonna get the audio suckers, but it's amazing to see that and I love seeing that in people. And faith is such a wonderful thing because this is something else that I learned today Faith is something that you can apply into anything and everything, every aspect of your life outside of religion Though I've only ever thought of it as a religious word but you put so much faith into your artwork when you turn to it to provide for your family Most people.

Speaker 1: 56:22

I've heard of many artists that they just can't get it to take off and they just quit and they turn to something else to provide for their families.

Speaker 1: 56:31

But it takes so much faith in yourself and your own abilities in order to rely on yourself and your own abilities for a form of income, and especially in such a hard time like going through a divorce, and so I just wanted to compliment you on that. You were such a wonderful embodiment of faith and I think the rest of us can try to apply that same embodiment into our own lives, that same amount of faith. I think the world would change so much so quickly if we all could implement that same faith in every aspect of our lives and the things that we love, the things that we enjoy, and especially in our testimonies of our Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for coming on and meeting with us. This episode has been so much more than I could have ever hoped, and if you wanna take a second to give your page your store, whatever you would like, give it a shout out and let everybody know where they can find you.

Speaker 3: 57:49

Well, thank you. Thank you for everything that you said and I am honored to be here. So really loved getting to know you and this incredible conversation. My Instagram is Emily Shay Fine Art Website is the same EmilyShayFineArtcom. Yeah, again, thank you so much. I absolutely enjoyed our time to get there.

Speaker 1: 58:20

Thank you To our amazing listeners. Thank you so much for sticking to the end of another very long episode. I hope you guys made it this far because it has been again. It has been absolutely amazing. So if you have made it this far, make sure you, if you're not already, follow us on Instagram at rememberpodcast. We love hearing people's stories, we love having guests come on and if you go to our Instagram page, there's a couple of different links to our merchandise, to our calendar, to sign up and meet with us. We've been so blessed we're booked out. How long are we booked out, mikaela?

Speaker 2: 59:04

Till May, so we got a lot of awesome stories in the episode. Thank you, guys, for your willingness to be able to just like our previous guests, so we're excited. Also, don't forget to leave a review on the podcast. Your feedback is also very helpful and, yeah, your support has been outstanding and we appreciate it all.

Speaker 1: 59:31

Yeah, thank you so much. Our amazing listeners, our remember family and remember him, thank you.